


For The Horde - Season 1

by bayaningbituon



Series: Age of the Geek [1]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Alec Hardison POV, Alec Hardison deserves more love, Black Character(s), Canon Character of Color, Episode Tag, Gen, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-06-06 20:19:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6768532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bayaningbituon/pseuds/bayaningbituon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Season 1 drabbles centered on Alec Hardison. Each chapter is a different episode.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Nigerian Job

**Author's Note:**

> There's not enough fics centered on Alec Hardison on this site, so I decided to fix it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec Hardison hates being alone.

When Alec Hardison was younger, he remembered a warm voice, lanky fingers stroking the hair from his forehead, a warm, worn smile and a soft voice saying, "Alec, baby, be good for your grandpa, okay? Mama's gotta go to work. I'll see you soon. Love you." She was never around much, always working, and he wished he could remember more of her—what her eyes looked like, or the smell of her perfume, maybe—but he couldn't. She had to work, and he had to stay with his grandpa.

His grandpa's house was dim and always smelled of smoke and menthol, but it was never scary because his grandpa made it feel like home. They watched the TV together sometimes, or his grandpa would read to him from a storybook, peering through his thick glasses and smiling through his salt and pepper mustache.

It was never lonely, not really. He was passed back and forth from his grandpa and his Mama, but even though he was only ever with one of them, he never wanted it any differently. 

And then his grandpa died, and story time and the dim, cool house was gone, and it was just him and Mama. When she went to work, he was left with the babysitter, and while he ached for what was lost, he didn't make a fuss. He still had his Mama. He wasn't alone.

And then she died, and suddenly, he was alone. Not physically, of course, but he was surrounded by grim-faced adults and even grimmer-faced children and there was no more home. 

His Nana gave him home again. Made him feel like part of a family, made sure he wasn't ever alone again. In Nana's house, warm and loving, he flourished, and tried to forget that feeling of loneliness that chased him ever since Mama died.

When he left his Nana's house after graduating high school, he relearned what it was like to be alone. Sure, he had friends that he played games with, acquaintances and rivals in the hacking world, but they had never met. He was a hacker, a criminal, and he thought that meant working alone. He didn't want to get too close to anyone, in case he got caught or had to uproot himself and run.

It wasn't until Victor Dubenich hired him to be a part of a team that he realized how much he missed being surrounded by people. He didn't know them or trust them, not yet. He knew _of_ them, did his research once Dubenich told him who else was on the team. The two that were in the building with him were easy on the eyes at least, but it was more than that.

This hodge podge group—they were _really_ good. Despite them never having worked together before, the pieces almost fit perfectly.

And then Dubenich tried to con them and kill them.

They gained another in their group, and then,  _then_ , the pieces came together. They pulled off a con on Dubenich, got the designs back,  _and_ got paid. Should be a done deal.

Alec Hardison watched the others walk away after giving them their checks and hesitated, considered just walking away, but thought, ' _Fuck it_ ,' and started jogging to catch up to Nate. ' _Might as well try to convince them all to make this work. Because...because this could really work.'_ When he saw others trying to catch up to Nate too, he started to smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're not all gonna be as introspective as this, but I wanted to lay out some of my headcanons of Hardison's past.
> 
> So my headcanon (and I think this is actual canon) is that Hardison bounced around different foster homes before landing in Nana's house. He mentions in Juror #6 Job that he had a foster mom that was a Jehovah's witness. He said "a" foster mom so in my drabbles that one foster mom was one of the grim adults that he was placed with before Nana came.
> 
> Also I ship the holy OT3 of this show so eventually the drabbles will get a little OT3 action.


	2. The Homecoming Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec has one _slight_ reservation about Nate's plan to take down Castleman Security and Jenkins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's not enough fics centered on Alec Hardison on this site, so I decided to fix it.

Being a hacker meant that for most of his jobs, Alec didn't even have to be in the same room as his target. The whole world was his oyster, and he usually didn't even have to step away from his desk. Sure, sometimes he took jobs onsite when necessary, like when he tried to steal the Dagger of Aqu'abi—and of course the Pierson job that landed him in a team—but most of the time he could work from the comfort of his own computer desk, a two-liter bottle of orange soda and a bag of gummy frogs within hand's reach. Being held at gunpoint at Pierson had been bad, terrifying, but he thought that since they had such an impressive hitter on the team, that moment would be the last time he would be in that situation. Surely, from now on, he could monitor the comms and hack from the safety of his desk.

Because facing down a horde of angry white men with guns? Not so much his cup of tea.

After Nate outlined the entire plan, there was a moment of silence as everyone absorbed the details. Parker still had a slightly heartbroken look on her face at the thought of giving away so much cash. Sophie was looking at the screen with an intense look of concentration on her face, and Eliot was jotting notes down on his notepad. And Alec? Alec's head was ringing with alarms.

"Um, question," Alec drawled, leaning backwards in his chair and raising a finger to make a point. "What's to stop them from shooting my Black ass nine ways to Sunday?"

Nate frowned slightly and shook his head. "They wouldn't want to risk drawing attention to themselves. Over there it's a war zone and they can get away with shooting an American soldier by claiming that they spooked and thought the soldier was an insurgent. Here? There's no way they can get away with killing an unarmed American citizen."

Alec scoffed and raised an eyebrow in astonishment. "You're actually serious right now, aren't you?"

Nate glanced at him, confused. "Yes?"

Alec sighed and raised his eyes to the ceiling in exasperation. "Lord save me from well-meaning white people," he muttered under his breath. In a louder voice, he conceded, "All right, fine, but if something happens to me, I'm haunting all y'all's asses. If you think I can be annoying now, just wait 'til I'm a ghost."

Parker looked at him with large eyes, spooked, and asked, "What? Are ghosts real?"

Eliot sighed and growled, "No, Parker, and no one's gonna die, Hardison. If you run into some trouble and you think Castleman's goons are gonna spook, just say the word and I'll be there."

Alec made an affirming noise and replied, "That's what I'm talking about. Solidarity, man. My code word is gonna be The Doctor."

Eliot looked at him weirdly and said, "Okay. What are you gonna do, yell about how you're just trying to save up to be a doctor or something?"

Alec spluttered, "No, I mean, _The Doctor_. Doctor Who? Longest running sci-fi show in the world? Blue police box? Gallifrey?" When Eliot rolled his eyes and stood up to leave the room, Alec followed suit. "No, seriously, how have you never heard of this show?"

Alec allowed himself to be distracted from his role in the con, hounding Eliot about Doctor Who and other sci-fi shows near and dear to his heart. But he filed a thought away in his mind to leave some reading around the offices about police brutality against Black people, because _damn_ were they clueless. And if he was going to continue working with this crew—and he knew they were all going to continue working with this crew, no matter what they said earlier—they needed to know exactly what they were risking.

Because he liked these people, liked working with them and hanging out with them, but he wasn't willing to _die_ for them, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think Hardison would've been okay at all about the plan including him having to face down a bunch of angry white military contractors with guns, tbh, especially since I don't think hackers would be used to facing down guns. Also white people get away with gunning down unarmed Black citizens all the time, which is something I'm sure Alec is aware of.
> 
> Also that last line! Oh Alec trust me you'll fall in love and you'll become a family with these people and you will soon be willing to risk your life for them. FEELINGS. ALL OF THE FEELINGS.
> 
> And sorry for the wait. It doesn't take me all that long to write these drabbles, actually, but I am prepping to go to a Con soon, and also I got distracted by reading every Leverage fic on Ao3, so... yeah.


	3. The Two-Horse Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec has a chat with Aimee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's not enough fics centered on Alec Hardison on this site, so I decided to fix it.

Alec looked at the door to the office, hesitating. It really was none of his business, and Eliot sure wouldn't thank him for it. Would probably be pissed that Alec was sticking his nose in his business, and for talking to Aimee at all. They weren't  _that_ close, just occasionally friendly with each other. But Eliot saved his ass a dozen times already, and it was really hard to ignore the insults that Aimee kept tossing casually at the hitter. Hopefully, now that the job was over and Willie was going to receive Baltimore along with a sizable amount of money, Aimee would let up a bit. But just in case...

 

Alec knocked gingerly on the office door and stammered, "A-Aimee? You in there?"

 

Her voice, quiet and withdrawn, came through the wooden door, slightly muffled. "Yeah, come on in."

 

He turned the doorknob and poked his head in, giving Aimee a quick smile before entering the room and closing the door behind him. "Hey girl, what's up? This day must've been exhausting." He looked over her figure, slumped in comfort in the chair behind the desk with a cup of hot tea cradled in her slim hands, and concluded that she'd be okay soon enough.

 

Aimee chuckled and smiled tiredly. "Yeah, well, I'm not used to this sort of thing. That harebrained plan of y'all's changed so much. How do you keep up?"

 

Alec laughed and said, "Eh, mainly ear comms and a lot of faith."

 

"In Mr. Ford?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

 

Alec tilted his head thoughtfully and replied, "Sure, but also in each other. We're the best at what we do. And it all worked out. We got you your horse and you're not going to jail."

 

She scoffed, "Well, there is that. This is the first time Eliot hasn't let me down." Her lips quirked in amusement, and her eyes stared off to the distance. "I'm not quite sure how to feel about that."

 

He cleared his throat and stuttered awkwardly, "W-Well, you know, that's...that's kind of why I came to talk to you a bit before we all go home." When her gaze focused back on his face, he looked down and muttered, "It's just, you know, my job is to monitor the comms and sometimes Eliot forgets to turn his off—"

 

"Oh my god," Aimee blurted out, turning red.

 

"Oh, no,  _nonononono_ ," he protested, waving his arms in denial at where Aimee's train of thought went. "I-I don't mean  _that_. When I heard y'all making those noises, I isolated his comm so that no one else could hear. Th-that's not why I'm here."

 

"Oh," she said faintly, her blush fading. "Then what is it?"

 

Alec hesitated, and then looked her straight in the eyes. "Look, I won't pretend to know what went down with you and Eliot years ago. He's a private dude, and I respect that. But I've heard the both of you arguing this whole week, and I just...look, I don't know everything about his past, but I know he's been through a lot. And I know that if he promised to come back and he didn't, then it wasn't for lack of trying. If he didn't come back, it wasn't because he didn't  _want_ to."

 

He fidgeted as she looked at him thoughtfully. Finally, after a moment, she replied, "You know, I think a part of me kinda knows that. But I don't wanna think about what he had to go through to keep him from coming back." She blinked rapidly to stall the tears forming in her eyes, and cleared her throat roughly. "Anyways, he lied to me about it. Didn't tell me anything. I was supposed to be his girl, and he didn't tell me anything."

 

Alec nodded and conceded, "You don't have to forgive him. He hurt you, I know. And he left you out. Maybe it was necessary, maybe not; I ain't asking him about it, that's for sure. I'm just here to ask if you can just, I don't know, let up a bit?"

 

Aimee looked at him consideringly, and after a minute of silence—in which he fidgeted and avoided her gaze—she smiled slightly and said, "I'm glad that Eliot has family looking out for him." Amidst Alec's protests of " _it isn't like that"_ and " _we just work together,"_ Aimee finished her tea and left the room, patting his shoulder on the way out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this was kinda short, but... I was having some trouble with this one tbh because Alec didn't really have a prominent role in this episode, but then I came up with this idea. I mean, Aimee had to get the whole idea of Eliot finding his family from somewhere, right? Hope y'all get my intention. 
> 
> Also this fic isn't trying to shame Aimee for being mad at Eliot. She has every right to be mad! Even Hardison said in this fic that she doesn't have to forgive him. It's just really tragic that she doesn't know the truth of the whole matter. I wish she knew that he had no choice and he wanted to come back but couldn't! 
> 
> Sorry for the long wait for this next chapter! I was distracted by watching WGN's Underground--you all should watch! Aldis Hodge is phenomenal in it, and the characters, acting, all so amazing. And it's an important story to tell.


End file.
